Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 17th November 2017

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING INDEPENDENT MEDICAL PUBLICATION I www.australiandoctor.com.au
17 NOVEMBER 2017
IT’S TIME NON-INVASIVE HOW TO TREAT
Finally the ‘big guys’ are
facing rotten tomatoes
in the stocks
Editorial. page 28 Is this the end of
conventional first-
trimester screening?
Therapy Update page 25 Groin lumps
and pain
GPs demand a voice
Measuring
BP? Got 6
minutes?
College’s pro-assisted dying stance under fire
JOCELYN WRIGHT
ASSISTED DYING
DEBATE
PAUL SMITH
A MAJORITY of GPs want the
RACGP to retract its controversial
support for voluntary euthanasia,
according to an Australian Doctor
survey.
RACGP president Dr Bastian Seidel
has been under intense pressure since
he suddenly declared the college’s
support for voluntary assisted dying
within hours of draft legislation pass-
ing the Victorian Lower house last
month.
Three weeks later, he is still to reveal
whether the college council discussed
and formally endorsed his statement,
Only 19% said the
college was entitled
to declare its support
without a formal
consultation with
members.
which says some patients with incur-
able conditions do not find answers in
palliative care and should be allowed
“to die with dignity and respect”.
Australian Doctor’s survey of 420
GPs, carried out last week, found that
59% believe the college should now
retract the statement.
The GPs who took part were
equally divided for and against volun-
tary assisted dying, but only 19% said
the college was entitled to declare its
support without a formal consultation
with members. A further 39% said
the college had no right to speak on
behalf of doctors on a fundamental
issue of conscience.
A number of RACGP members
have threatened to quit over the state-
ment, which includes a call for other
A SIMPLE new protocol allows
GPs to measure blood pressure
in six minutes with results
as accurate as those from
ambulatory BP monitoring,
researchers say.
Automated office BP
readings taken in a quiet room
avoid white coat hypertension
and closely match the gold
standard of BP measurement,
according to a study from the
Menzies Institute for Medical
Research in Hobart.
In a trial involving almost
200 hypertensive patients,
researchers found that the
second and third of eight
automated office BP readings
taken over a 15-minute period
most closely correlated with
daytime ambulatory BP.
These automated BP results
were 18mmHg lower for
systolic BP and 4mmHg lower
for diastolic BP, compared with
readings taken by a GP.
The researchers said their
two-readings protocol was
more feasible than previous
ones that required up to eight
automated BP readings over 30
minutes.
“Now we know we can do
it in as few as two recordings
over a six-minute period,
which will make it much more
practical in general practice,
said co-author Professor Mark
Nelson, chair of the discipline
of general practice at the
University of Tasmania.
“It’s easily implementable.
The only thing standing in the
Earn CPD points
states and territories to “consider the
Victorian [assisted dying] law as a leg-
islative blueprint”.
Professor John Murtagh, one of
the RACGP’s longest-serving mem-
bers and an opponent of euthanasia,
claimed the statement had come like
a “bolt from the blue” and is now
demanding the college explain its
mandate.
Dr Robert Douglas, a GP in Ade-
laide, said: “I am 100% in support of
the Victorian legislation. However, I
am 100% convinced that the college
should not have a particular policy
position on this issue ... whether in
favour or against. It must be left to
the conscience of the individual prac-
titioner.”
cont’d page 4
DOWN THE
TOILET
The lavatory
revolution
preventing disease
and saving lives
News Review,
page 11
cont’d page 8
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